For My People

My feet lead me, and I follow blindly. I know this land better than many, I do not need to look to find my way. And the settlement has been here long enough that I need not search for it. I will simply let my feet take me there, freeing my mind to consider my options.

I must save my people, and my wife. I do not know why, but they took her. My beautiful Tanis, and the son we adopted. His mother and father died in the last raid of our camp, and Tanis insisted we take him. Little Chetan, our son. I will walk into their village, I will meet their leader and I will look him in the eye. And I will take back my people. My father does not want me to, he says they will kill me with their metal sticks. But I will have to risk it, for my people.I must take care not to show my affection for my wife, where my people accept and even cherish our love, these pale people have murdered us for it.

As I walk into the settlement heads turn toward me. All is still until one man points his metal stick at me. He come up to me, getting in my face. My English is improving, I've listened to them speaking before, so I catch some of what he says to me.

"What. . . here. . . savage. . ." I assume he's asking why I'm here.

"I . . . here . . . Speak to leader." I attempt to tell him. The men surrounding me laugh at my broken English. I walk forward to the buildings they destroyed our forests to build, and step in. A large man, muscular and tall sits at rectangular log inside. He looks up from his writing and glares at me. Finally I can use the words I have been practicing.

"Give me my people." I demand calmly. He laughs, saying; "Why . . . savage . . . tresspassers. . . " I walk up to him, I will not let him intimidate me and push me around.

"Give my people back to me." I say again. He grabs me by my upper arm and pulls me toward a prision of metal. He shoves me against it so I can see my people. They are cold, and hungry. And the one thing that echoes through each set of eyes is fear. I reach out to one, my Tanis holding our son. She smiles wanly at me and reaches out her hand.

"Nizhoni, you must leave my wife. You must escape. I could not bare to see them take you as well."  I shake my head, her hand running through my hair; "I will save our people." I tell her firmly. I turn toward the man, and immediattly notice something. A new man has come closer, looking at me with a detestable grin. He looks as if he wants to eat me, as he walks forward I notice his leg coverings lower.

One swift kick to his nether regions and he is on the ground. I run to the leader and grab his keys, freeing my people. Tanis grabs my hand and we run, little Chetan clutched in our arms. We make it to the forest's edge before the metals sticks start releasing their fire. I hear my people's screams, and I know that we will never see some of them again, but we continue to run. I say a silent prayer, both for the dead, and for my people still running.

I let go of my wife's hand, allowing us to run faster. But she was always the faster of us, even with our son in her arms she soon leads me. But soon I am jerked backwards, a man with flesh paler than the snow holding me by my hair.

When the sun rises and I wake in their metal prision I know I will die here. They are tieing a sticks together, as if preparing a bonfire, with one large branch sticking up to the heavens in the center. I will die here, but I saved my people. I am pulled over to this contraption, and tied to the branch. Just inside the forest I see the warriors of my village. I see the faces of my father, my wife and our son, the future cheif of our tribe, and I see my brother. The warriors run toward me, silent as the death, but the pale men have already lit the sticks around me. Just before the fire obscures my vision I see the closest warrior's eyes. They show such sorrow, for he knows as well as I that they will not save me.

As the flames engulf me I am yanked from my body into a vision of my people's future. First there are more of the pale people, with their strange technology, the metal sticks become for more numerous. Then we are evacuated from our homes, little by little we are pushed further and further from our ancestral lands. We are attacked and sold along side our animal bretheren, made to do work for the pale men. Finally we will be given scraps of land, land the pale people do not want for themselves, which is nearly nonexistant. We will be forced to share homes with tribes we fight against, and we will sell our traditional crafts along roadsides. The world will change around us, and we will be forced to change with it.

And as I die I feel a great sadness. I cannot change what will come for my people, and worse yet I cannot warn them. I cannot even be there to help them. I will not watch my son grow up, or accept the position of cheif. I will never again hold my wife in my arms, or kiss her. I will never again see my home. I will die here, surrounded by the enemy of my people, and I may not recieve a proper buial. I can only hope that I am taken back into Mother Earth's embrace.